Vodafone Dials up $7 Billion Net Loss
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DAILY NATION | Wednesday May 17, 2017 Business News | 45 Financials> Telco CEO seeks to reform phone firm Vodafone dials up $7 billion net loss Poor show LONDON, Tuesday cial and financial performance during the year,” said chief executive Vittorio follows odafone logged Tuesday a large Colao. Sales declined 4.4 per cent to slashing annual net loss after slashing the 47.6 billion euros on adverse foreign Vvalue of its troubled Indian divi- exchange movements. value of its sion, but underlying earnings soared on Vodafone is the world’s second-larg- a solid European performance. est mobile-phone carrier in terms of troubled The British mobile phone giant subscriber numbers, trailing global Indian posted a loss of 6.3 billion euros ($6.9 leader China Mobile. billion) for the 12 months to March, In the first half, Vodafone initially division after a net loss of 5.4 billion euros in took a non-cash impairment of 5.0 the previous financial year, it said in billion euros on its Indian activities a statement. and blamed a sharp increase in com- The loss was driven by taxation petition. However in March, Vodafone changes and a 3.7-billion impairment announced the merger of its Indian unit at its Indian division — which Vodafone with Idea Cellular in order to create is splinning off into a joint venture. India’s largest telecoms operator and However, underlying or operating fight ultra-competitive new player profit excluding exceptional items Reliance Jio. almost tripled to 3.7 billion euros on Following the deal, Vodafone added cost-cutting — and a solid showing in Tuesday it had partially reversed the Europe. Indian impairment — but it still stood Vodafone shares rallied four per cent at 3.7 billion euros. after it also ramped up the shareholder Colao has sought to reshape the dividend by two per cent, taking the business following his appointment total payout to 14.77 eurocents. in 2008. “Our focus on excellence in cus- The group off-loaded its 45 per cent tomer experience has enabled further stake in Verizon Wireless in 2015 for improvements in our overall commer- a colossal $130 billion, one of the big- gest transactions in global corporate history. Our focus on excellence In 2016, Vodafone sold its Dutch fixed-line business Vodafone Thuis to in customer experience Germany’s T-Mobile for an undisclosed has enabled further amount. The sale followed the merger improvements in our of Vodafone Netherlands with Liberty overall commercial and Global’s Dutch division Ziggo into a financial performance” joint venture. And earlier this year, Vodafone an- CEO Vittorio Colao nounced the creation of its Indian joint venture. (AFP) The rich in Britain to face more taxes British opposition Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn (left) poses with a copy of the Labour election manifesto after the launch in Bradford yesterday. The party pledged to raise taxes on the well-off, ranationalise key industries and end austerity ahead of elections next month. PAUL ELLIS | AFP Ancient olive trees make way for pipeline ROME, Monday in vain to block the transfer of make their feelings known. 11 of the some 200 trees due to Campaigners say the pipeline A batch of centuries-old olive be moved. should be brought ashore in an trees in southern Italy have The consortium behind the already-industrialised area of been moved out of the way of Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) the Puglia region, to the north a controversial new pipeline in have promised that the uprooted of the olive groves they say are a dead-of-night operation that trees will be kept alive and re- at risk of being blighted. required the deployment of turned to their original locations Italy’s centre-left govern- dozens of police. once the pipe has been laid. ment has declared the pipeline More than 200 opponents But local environmentalists a strategic project — making it of the project to pipe gas from are sceptical about this happen- harder for it to be blocked by the Caspian Sea to Italy via Tur- ing and they turned out in force local objections. key, Greece and Albania tried in the early hours of Tuesday to (AFP).